All must step up to fix Utah Jazz's woes

Or, as Williams succinctly put it when asked if the Jazz are hitting a panic button: "Nah... we've just got to play better."

Sloan believes players should worry about the me part first — at least before pointing fingers.

"I think No. 1, you've got to do your job first," the Jazz coach said. "With any team that I've seen, the players that are called team leaders they do their job, and sometimes it's not there as hard as you try. They're allowed to have a bad game once in a while as much as anybody else. The best thing to do about it is go put it out there on the floor the next time you have a chance."

Williams certainly did that, following his five-point, foul-plagued outing on Friday with a 20-point, 14-assist game Saturday. Both performances — one horrible, the other pretty good at times — came in losses.

Go figure.

The Jazz have long employed an unspoken Las Vegas-like policy of "What happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room," but Bell admitted there have been a few fiery speeches by players this season.

Unfortunately, the fly on the wall did not have a digital recorder handy.

One such pep talk came from Bell at halftime in Miami, and teammates said that helped inspire them to rally out of a 22-point hole and beat the Heat in overtime.

"I think it's time and place," Bell said, following the Boston blowout. "The way we feel right now, we're pretty down. Guys, I don't know if it would be the best time for that. That's just my personal opinion."

Emotional speeches — by players or coaches — can work on occasion, Bell admitted.

"We've had some times this year when people have stepped up and puffed out their chest and beat it and yelled and screamed, and we've responded" he said. "(When) you have a team that's down the way we are right now, I don't know if that's the best solution."

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